Finding Bigfoot Season Five – Squatters for Sasquatch

The Finding Bigfoot team returned to Virginia for a second expedition to investigate a trail camera photograph taken by Roger Williams. He is a member of a hunting club that hunts a particular piece of land. They deploy trail cameras in July after the bucks get their velvet, and check them a couple times throughout the months. That same month, Roger’s camera captured a picture of a strange-looking creature smelling a baited stump. The figure in the photo is strongly reminiscent of the Jacobs Creature from Pennsylvania.

An analysis of the anatomy seen in the photo yields a conclusion that the figure is most likely a bear. Sasquatches, even juveniles, would have obvious shoulders since they are descended from brachiators just as modern humans are. Instead, we see the sloping shoulders of a habitual quadruped.

No large gluteal muscles are present, which is the most glaring feature that argues against this figure being a sasquatch. These muscles’ primary functions are to keep the torso erect and to aid in forward propulsion during bipedal walking. Sasquatches have large, well-defined butt muscles because they have to keep their torsos upright, and they are habitual bipeds. Bears are habitual quadrupeds that keep their torsos horizontal, so they have small rump muscles.

Hints of the front right paw are visible in an enhanced version of this photo. It looks very much like the front paw of a bear rather than the hand of a sasquatch (or any other hominoid). While no claws are visible, the fingers seem short and stubby.

The back right foot of the creature is visible. It is well-documented that sasquatches have an elongated heel segment which gives the heel a protruding appearance. The heel connects to the calf muscles with a tendon used for bipedal walking, and the elongated segment is to give a biomechanical advantage to moving a large mass. This creature has no such feature which indicates that it is not a habitual biped.

Finally, just above the right arm is an anomoly in the figure. I interpret this as being just a slice of the bear’s head and snout as it angles off to the right.

All of these factors taken together strongly argue for this picture being that of a bear. I do not think that Roger hoaxed us, though. I think he didn’t know what was in the photograph.

A consequence of my analysis of this photograph is that I now have strong doubts that the Jacobs Creature is a sasquatch. I see the same features on both creatures, so I have little choice than to assume they are both bears.

For this expedition, we decided to stay put in one location for the entire week. This is my preferred method of bigfooting, but with production schedules being what they are, we are forced to bounce around quite a bit to get a show done. With the help of their Directory of Wildlife Management, we chose a location with the appropriate resources nearby (a lake, streams, topography, and meadows) and set up base camp in the Mountain Lake Conservancy.

The first witness interview I did was with Darryl Castillo. He witnessed a bigfoot back in in November of 2004. He was riding his quad down a shallow ravine on his 400 acre property when he saw the familiar sight of sunlight reflecting off of an animal’s fur. The creature was about 100 yards further down the ravine, but on the right side of the trail in standing in the brush. The massive creature stood there a moment and then walked further into the woods to the right giving Darryl a better view of the tall biped. The creature stood around seven feet tall, but it was the width that really stood out to Darryl. He estimated the shoulders to be around three feet or more wide, making this sasquatch short and squat. The creature walked in the brush right over a 39 inch barbed wire fence and disappeared.

The finished episode edited out a part of Darryl’s story. Immediately after seeing the creature, he went to the location where he saw it disappear into the woods. Looking to the right where the creature walked, he saw a herd of white tail deer staring intently into the woods away from him, but totally ignoring him. It was obvious to Darryl that the deer were aware of him, yet they would not look at him, only the woods where he could now hear branches breaking. Suddenly, several very loud power knocks erupted from that same spot causing the deer to huff and run off in the opposite direction. That was enough for Darryl, so he hopped on his quad and left the area.

The next day, Darryl returned to the location and explored the woods where this all happened. He found large footprints in the leafy ground where he heard the knocks come from. Following the trackway led him to a low branch that had what he interpreted as hairs hanging off of it. He put the hairs away in a safe place, but does not currently know their whereabouts.

Bobo’s search technique was certainly unique. He commissioned a life-sized wooden cut out of a sasquatch complete with glowing eyes and a speaker for a mouth from which to blast vocalizations. It seems ridiculous, but some of his other crazy ideas have worked very well, so I don’t question the stuff he comes up with. While Bobo and Matt heard a possible Ohio-howl, they did not manage to record it. Ranae and I came up empty-handed on the last night.

Virginia holds a lot of promise for bigfooters. The Appalachian Mountains get increasingly wild the further west one goes until the border to West Virginia, which means fewer and fewer people. I would not be surprised at all if the Finding Bigfoot team returns to Virginia again on a future episode.